Court suspends trial against Berlusconi

World brief

Italo prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi is at the center of a fresh scandal as he takes up the rotating presidency of the European Union today. A Milan court suspended a bribery trial against Berlusconi on Monday after a new immunity law went into effect. It also asked Italy’s constitutional court to decide whether the law was constitutional.

The immunity law, approved last month, exempts the prime minister and four other top politicians from prosecution while in office.

Berlusconi is accused of bribing judges to win favorable rulings in a 1980s takeover battle tied to his vast business empire.